I have two special things for you all today. In honor of April Fool’s Day, some of the Red Letters fools play us the songs of their trickster minds. And, the other thing is if you followed me on Twitter all those years ago, you might remember the #CharactersHell game. It may be called X now, but the game is still the same… and no, that’s not truly a prank on you guys. But if you subscribe to the blog, you do find out about those boards sooner than anyone else.

So, let’s get into the pranksters, and what kind of pranks they pull, especially together!

First up, we have Nira and Collar together for this chat. Collar is called such, because everyone believes him to be a cop, but no one is quite sure of that since he has a quirky sense of humor, and a streak of green in his hair. But, sometimes he has an authoritative air..

Especially when we first meet him… Cuffs may have been involved, and Nira might have been the only one to know it was a joke… Which is why both of them suffered the punishment together. And they would do it again. Collar especially enjoys the reactions. 

So for Collar?

Original Prankster – The Offspring

And Nira? He loves a good joke, but his chemistry with Bebe tends to make them pull the teasing pranks together. For them, it’s not so much jokes as just being weird and extra together. So Nira falls into the category of body humor, occasionally inappropriate or off color. Quite like the song that fits him.

The Masochism Tango – Tom Lehrer

But the real pratfalls comedic duo? A cat man named Deej, and his cat by way of pet bobcat Roger.  

Have you ever seen those pets that love your person more than they love you? That’s kinda these two. Roger is a horrendous kitty flirt, that gets away with stealing cupcakes and scent marking a lot of people. Even gets away with his tail thwacking into ladies, sometimes paws. Because it’s cute if it’s a cat, but somehow Roger gets Deej to take the blame, almost like he’s a jealous adorable fluff ball. 

So what fits a comedic cat like Roger?

Stray Cat Strut – Stray Cats

Deej? That cat man gets cat blocked whenever he tries to flirt. He dresses a bit like a cat and that tail acts like a third arm, especially when dancing. And because Roger isn’t a kitten, there’s some real power in the soft swipes. So sometimes Deej would try to walk or even casually sit down on a stool only for Roger to bat it out from under him and make Deej look like a clumsy dude. Not that Deej can’t do that on his own, but Roger certainly makes it look worse. 

So Deej is more of a clown by proxy.

The Clown – Conway Twitty

Our last entry on the fools list? Martini Martin isn’t exactly a prankster like the others, but he is pretty foolish, and there is a standing joke that he always asks Tweety to come work for him whenever he sees her. In general, Martin is more of a slow to catch on dude. Takes him a while to find his place in his life, and until then, he’s got a bit of a blurt the thoughts out without a filter kind of way to him. And the notes he writes himself do not make sense to him the next day, so his slow but blunt way makes for moments that make him accidentally suggest a bloke in a kilt might be a lady he spoke to the night before. 

It’s likely only luck and kindness saved his face that day. 

But, as bad at flirting or speaking as Martin might be, his talent is the music business. At least there he comes into his own, especially with a key find at the bar he frequents for martinis, fun, and people that understand him. And he has the special honor of being our main character’s first patron, so they maintain a working friendship to this day.

So our music man, Martini Martin fits this song quite well.

Stuck In The Middle With You – Stealers Wheel

Pausing here to remind everyone that I don’t own the music, just use it for the entertaining of characters.

Now, if I were to prank you, my dear reader?

I’d start by going from the bar world of Red Letters, and I add on an element for the writer’s world. If you follow me here, you get a sneak peak at the relaunch of the Twitter (now X) game I hosted years ago. Life got in the way, but I feel reasonably sure that I can continue this game and my comeback to the community. I am aware it might take a while to catch back on, but it was never about the follows or likes for me. 

I spent time working this through because when I was starting out, I didn’t know what else to do with Twitter, and the hashtag games were a great way to think about the writing I did. It gave me something to post about, it let me RP as the characters, and some games challenged my characters to be fleshed out more. So it helped me. But the games at that time weren’t perfect. Some were themed in ways that weren’t inclusive to other genres, as the WIP at that time was a Women’s Fiction story, and magical realm questions didn’t work for my story or my social media gaming. 

With time, effort, and some behind the scenes mentoring from the prior co-host who had a successful enough game, we created a game called #CharactersHell. I have the prior co-host’s blessing to move forward on my own, as they are not ready to return yet. A lot of the concept was mine anyway. 

So it returns for April Fool’s Day. Somehow the most fitting day to return really. The themes are still the same. Monthly sins and virtues, a general theme like foolish pranks for this April, and the same sort of rotation. 

Our antagonists start us off, along with WIP world questions, for #UnderWorld week. After all, it is hell, and who better than the antags to have a twisted view on the world? 

Main characters and #RelationshipHell comes next, discussing different relationships through the main voices in the WIP. 

Side characters often feel sidelined, but active enough in the story to sometimes steal the show or get themselves a spin off, so they are the perfect ones to get the tea from, in #ObsceneSpoilers week. And there’s no specific rules on the side character, so it’s up to the player if the side character answering the questions is for or against the MCs, so it can sometimes get very juicy with that gossip. 

Our final full week is for the BackGround characters, and we pair it with #Possession week, to be able to give them more action prompts. Because sometimes? BGs are just there for onlookers or to serve a quick moment and get lost again, so they might not have the level of detail those SCs do. But they can have fun… in hell? They would be possessed. 

Occasionally in the scariest of ways, like say, waking up as the MC and pitching the WIP from the BGs new POV.

And finally, if there’s more than 28 days, we have just enough time left to give the WIP Authors a little taste of hell too. Sometimes in the form of marketing, other times in the form of writing practices or advice.

There’s always a monthly board for planners who like to answer questions all at once, and daily posts with a little more context in the tweets for those answering on the fly. The nice thing about this set up is that there are 7 sins and virtues, so it’s at least 7 months before questions might repeat, but they won’t always hit the same months because there’s only 12 months in a year. Next April would be a different sin/virtue to go along with the potential foolish questions, and I did learn the first time around that that simple rotation changes the board enough to keep it fresh and different. The format is self sustaining, and sometimes it takes me a while, but I always found ways to make up all the questions needed.

So here’s the first board of Characters Hell launching for April Fool’s Day. I encourage anyone with a WIP to come play the game again.